I’m looking to buy a new saddle and have settled on a Fizik (temp argo R1). I was looking around and it was pretty much the same price everywhere and then I looked on amazon and it was $50 less. It says shipped and sold by amazon. I’m worried this is a counterfeit and not sure if amazon does “due diligence” on these things…any thoughts? experiences? I"m just not sure why only amazon can discount so deeply (30%)
You can check reviews. I was looking for some Vittoria latex tubes and found a too good to be true price. Amazon reviews were filled with people that took a chance (easy to do for many with low price items) with pictures of failures at the stem, lots of “don’t buy these”.
If there’s no reviews that a sign too. A “good deal” is hard to pass up. No reviews means it’s a “new” storefront (changed often) and another red flag.
You could take the chance. Be the canary in the coal mine. Warn others if it’s bad.
Good luck.
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If it says sold by Amazon, it is almost 100% that it is the actual product. Amazon itself, as opposed to merchants selling on Amazon, is not going to knowingly (or through carelessness) sell fakes. That is a whole kind of hurt that Amazon could get into.
Pricing on Amazon by Amazon in my experience is all over the place. Just as you can find great prices, I’ve also seen Amazon selling things noticeably (>10%) above the MSRP. So I almost always check reliable sites / the manufacturers site to see what the true MSRP is.
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Pricing is interesting. It may have been here or another forum but someone mentioned they found a good deal on….something from a site I’d never heard of in the EU. I went and saw they had GP5000’s at low cost, but of course with shipping to the US there was no deal. It was a penny or two away from the price for 2 Tires on Amazon with “free shipping”.
I’ve bought things for too cheap off of AliExpress. You never know what you’ll get, lol. But those purchases were under $20. Taking a chance on a saddle is a bigger risk.
Good point about Amazon not wanting to tarnish itself by having fakes.
But when spidey senses start tingling I tend to back off. And on the other hand fortune favors the bold, lol I miss out on deals all the time I suppose.
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There’s a good chance that its counterfeit but its worth a try and most sellers care about their reputation and will return it to save face and sometimes you dont even need to send it back. I got a fake SMP like that one time
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You can buy it and inspect it yourself. If in doubt you could always send it back.
I’m not sure I’d know
This is what I was wondering, if it’s sold by Amazon if that makes it safer as opposed to coming from another shop
Yes - if it is sold by Amazon it is safer. That doesn’t in my opinion extend to Amazon Basics though, only third party manufacturers, where the manufacturer is reputable.
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I’ve purchased 3 fizik Argo vento saddles from Amazon, sold by Amazon. All have been great and seem legit.
Amazon third part sellers are the Wild West. I never buy from them unless it is a legitimate well known reseller or direct from manufacturer. Batteries are the worst category!
I also don’t trust Amazon warehouse after a few bad experiences.
And you like the Argo?
I would never buy anything that you actually care to be name brand off of Amazon. I’ve personally received fake Dura ace (11s) chains from Amazon.
I like the saddle. I have the vento, like the shape better than tempo. Once I find a saddle that works, I buy for all bikes and an extra, thus the 3 ordered so far.
Used to have the Arione.
Sold by Amazon? Or sold on Amazon by a third party merchant? You always need to be very careful who the merchant actually is.
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I feel like amazon’s return policy makes saddle try-outs way easier. Ships and sold by amazon tends to mean you get their fill out a form send it right back kind of return policy. I tried out a fizik antares (i forget which type) on the cheap out of the amazon warehouse deals. Was the right type of saddle but the wrong rails for what I was ordering. In the end it made it easy to try out the saddle, find out I didn’t like the shape and send it right back saying they didn’t send the correct item which was true. Full refund with no questions and no problems. Same thing happened on a warehouse deal with some shimano spd shoes. Sent the wrong ones, sent them back with a few clicks. So ultimately if it’s right or not for you amazon will more than likely take the return if it says it beneath the 'add to cart/buy it now" buttons on the page. And by most accounts if it’s both sold and shipped by amazon there’s a good chance it’ll be legit. Also figure other sites can be less forgiving with returns. I just bought a fancy selle italia from competitive cyclist. Yes they’ll take a saddle back within the 30 day window but it’s only for store credit, not a refund. Lucky for me the saddle works great so there was no need to test the policy.
Shoot… and Amazon was the seller? Not a third party?
I’ve had very good luck with Amazon Warehouse cycling shoes and saddles (including an Argo R1 Tempo). Usually it’s returned by a cyclist trying something on and it’s just the packaging that’s been messed with. YMMV
If an item is sold and shipped by Amazon, then the vendor of that product sold it to Amazon through their Vendor Central program. Amazon buys product from that vendor in bulk, owns that inventory and then sells it at what price Amazon deems appropriate.
If a product is sold by a different company, but shipped via Amazon, then it is through their Supplier Central program. That is basically a consignment program….the vendor ships to an Amazon warehouse and Amazon fulfills the orders, but only pay for the goods when they actually sell. The advantage here is that the vendor controls the pricing, not Amazon.
In this case, the fact that the Fizik saddle is being sold and shipped via Amazon means there is a pretty small chance it is a fake product. Even a product that is sold through the Seller Central program is unlikely to be fake.
Where you need to be careful is with items that are sold and shipped through a company other than Amazon. Proceed cautiously if you find pricing too good to be true.
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Awesome. Thanks
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Just to expound in a few points above….getting into the Vendor Central program requires getting certified as a supplier to Amazon. Most companies doing knock-offs are going to expose themselves to that or bother with the hassle.
The reason the pricing may be so low is simply because Amazon decided they need to lower the price substantially to move some goods that were selling slower than expected. Since Amazon controls the pricing with Vendor Central products, they can just decide to do it.
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